Dispute initiation using artificial intelligence

ABSTRACT

A system for artificial intelligent dispute resolution is disclosed. The system may receive a dispute initiation request from a voice input channel. The system may determine user authentication state in response to the dispute initiation request. The system may receive a natural language problem statement from the voice input channel. The system may determine a user intent in response to the natural language problem statement. The system may compare the user intent with a business rules set and determine a dispositioned outcome based on the business rules set and the user intent.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods forautomating dispute resolution systems.

BACKGROUND

Traditional methods of automated inquiry and dispute resolution tend toemploy decision tree structures. The decision tree structures oftendirect a user down a branching path comprising multiple levels definedby a filtering statement or question set, with each subsequent levelnarrowing the general inquiry to a particular problem statement. A usermay select from one or more answer choices at each level addinginformation to define the nature of the problem. Improper or faultyselection of an answer choice may to result in an incorrect problemstatement and may require the user to reset to the highest level of thedecision tree. In this regard, defining a problem by traditionaldecision tree methods is usually time consuming, demand a relativelylarge number of user inputs, and may be intolerant of informationalfaults.

SUMMARY

In various embodiments, systems, methods, and articles of manufacture(collectively, the “system”) for dispute resolution are disclosed. Thesystem may receive a dispute initiation request from a voice inputchannel. The dispute initiation request may be received by a computerbased system in communication with a database. The system may determinea user authentication state in response to the dispute initiationrequest. The system may receive a natural language problem statementfrom the voice input channel. The system may determine a user intent inresponse to the natural language problem statement. The system maycompare the user intent with a business rules set and determine adispositioned outcome based on the business rules set and the userintent. The system may return the dispositioned outcome and may storethe dispositioned outcome as customer data.

In various embodiments, the system may invoke a user authenticationprocess and prompt the voice input channel for an authentication datainput, the system may receive an authentication data and compare theauthentication data to the customer data, and the system may return afailed authentication message or a valid authentication message inresponse to the user authentication state. In various embodiments, thesystem transmits a request for natural language input in response to thevalid authentication message. In various embodiments, the system mayparse the natural language problem statement into a plurality of intentelements and store the plurality of intent elements as intent data. Invarious embodiments, the system may also request a first question andcorresponding first answer array, the system may parse the firstquestion and corresponding first answer array and generate a firstparsed answer array, the system may also determine an answeravailability in response to the first parsed answer array and acomparison function between the first parsed answer array and theplurality of intent elements.

In various embodiments, the system may also select a first answer inresponse to the answer availability, or pass the first question andcorresponding first answer array to the voice input channel and receivethe first answer the voice input channel. In various embodiments, thesystem may also receive a second question and corresponding secondanswer array in response to the first answer. In various embodiments,the system may also parse the second question and corresponding secondanswer array and generate a second parsed answer array, the system mayalso determine the answer availability in response to the second parsedanswer array and the comparison function between the second parsedanswer array and the plurality of intent elements, the system may alsoselect a second answer in response to the answer availability, or passthe second question and corresponding second answer array to the voiceinput channel and receive the second answer from the voice inputchannel. In various embodiments, the system may also receive a thirdquestion and corresponding third answer array in response to the secondanswer.

The foregoing features and elements may be combined in variouscombinations without exclusivity, unless expressly indicated hereinotherwise. These features and elements as well as the operation of thedisclosed embodiments will become more apparent in light of thefollowing description and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter of the present disclosure is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. Amore complete understanding of the present disclosure, however, may beobtained by referring to the detailed description and claims whenconsidered in connection with the drawing figures, wherein like numeralsdenote like elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating various system components of asystem for automated dispute resolution, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 2A illustrates a process flow for automated dispute resolution, inaccordance with various embodiments; and

FIG. 2B illustrates a continued process flow for automated disputeresolution, in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show various embodiments by way ofillustration. While these various embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice thedisclosure, it should be understood that other embodiments may berealized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

In various embodiments, the system may provide a greater level ofsophistication and control for dispute resolution systems. While priorart systems typically tend to demand multiple user inputs to define aproblem, the current system may define a problem statement on the basisof a single natural language input (or minimal inputs) comprising a userintent. In this regard, the system may also reduce the cost ofdevelopment or system processing time for problem definition by reducinginput volume and not requiring additional hardware development ordemanding additional information flow. The system may reduce the processtime an automated dispute resolution process is engaged by a user. Thesystem may also reduce redundant input requests, thereby reducing ademand for system resources. The system may simplify reconciliationdisputes and enhance user experience by decreasing a number of userinteractions. Benefits of the present disclosure may apply to anysuitable use of branching definition trees. For example, the presentdisclosure may apply in dispute contexts, as well as in informationrequests or support contexts.

This process improves the functioning of the computer. For example, theprocess increases the reliability and speed of dispute processing byreducing a number of user inputs and/or bypassing a number of user inputrequests. In various embodiments, reducing the number of user inputsdecreases the number of cases where a dispute is abandoned. In thisregard, by reducing a number of abandoned dispute cases network callsare reduced for revived cases and storage overhead for abandoned casesis reduced. In this regard, the processes described herein may decreaseprocessing overhead of computing systems comprising artificialintelligent dispute preprocessors. In various embodiments, the processesdescribed herein may increase network availability by tending to reducefront end and back end process calls and/or network hops. In thisregard, the processes described herein may save processing resourcesincluding CPU time, memory resources, and network resources.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 1, a system 100 maycomprise an issuer system 102, a customer 104 (e.g., a user), a VoiceAssistant (VA) device 106, and a telephone system 108. In variousembodiments, issuer system 102 may further comprise a Digital ServicesSystem (DSS) 112 which may comprise an Interactive Voice Response (IVR)module 114, an Artificial Intelligent (AI) dispute preprocessor 116, adispute management system 118 which may comprise a Business Rules Engine(BRE) 120, and a database 122. Any of these components may be outsourcedand/or be in communication with issuer system 102.

In various embodiments, database 122 may comprise any number of dataelements or data structures such as customer data 124, rules data 126,and intent data 130. VA device 106 may comprise software and/or hardwarein communication with issuer system 102 via network 110. In variousembodiments, telephone system 108 may be in communication with issuersystem 102 via network 110. In various embodiments, network 110 maycomprise hardware and/or software configured to allow customer 104, aprospective customer, a transaction account owner, a user, and/or thelike, access to issuer system 102. System 100 may be computer based, andmay comprise a processor, a tangible non-transitory computer-readablememory, and/or a network interface, along with other suitable systemsoftware and hardware components. Instructions stored on the tangiblenon-transitory memory may allow system 100 to perform various functions,as described herein.

In various embodiments, VA device 106 may comprise hardware and/orsoftware configured to allow customer 104, a user, a prospectivecustomer, transaction account owner, and/or the like, access to system100. For example, VA device 106 may comprise any suitable device that isconfigured to allow a user to communicate with a network and issuersystem 102 via network 110. VA device 106 may include, for example, apersonal computer, personal digital assistant, cellular phone, kiosk,virtual assistants (e.g., Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, etc.)and/or the like comprising a voice recognition function. VA device 106may allow a user to communicate with issuer system 102 to input elementsof customer data 124 and intent data 130, receive and communicateresponses from system 102, and transmit a dispute initiation request ora natural language problem statement, and/or any other suitable task. VAdevice 106 and telephone system 108 may be in electronic and/oroperative communication with issuer system 102. In this regard, VAdevice 106 may comprise any suitable hardware and/or software componentscapable of sending and receiving data, for example, a personal computer,personal digital assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, and/or the like. Invarious embodiments, VA device 106 or telephone system 108 may transmita dispute initiation request or a natural language problem statementcomprising a user intent to issuer system 102 via network 110.

In various embodiments, issuer system 102 may be configured as a centralnetwork element or hub to access various systems, engines, andcomponents of system 100. Issuer system 102 may comprise a network,computer-based system, and/or software components configured to providean access point to various systems, engines, and components. Issuersystem 102 may be in operative and/or electronic communication with VAdevice 106, telephone system 108, DSS 112, IVR module 114, AI disputepreprocessor 116, dispute management system 118, BRE 120, and/ordatabase 122. In this regard, issuer system 102 may allow communicationfrom VA device 106 to systems, engines, and components of system 100.Issuer system 102 may also allow communication from telephone system 108to systems, engines, and components of system 100. In variousembodiments, issuer system 102 may receive device identity (e.g.fingerprinting) data from VA device 106. In various embodiments, devicefingerprinting data may be stored as customer data 124.

In various embodiments, database 122 may be configured to store andmaintain data relating to customer 104, such as authentication data 214,as customer data 124. For example, customer data 124 may comprisecustomer device information, customer interaction data and/orclickstream data, customer account data, customer identity data, and/orthe like. Database 122 may store the customer data 124 using anysuitable technique described herein or known in the art. Customer data124 may be in operative and/or electronic communication with DSS 112, AIdispute preprocessor 116, dispute management system 118, IVR module 114,and/or BRE 120. In various embodiments, customer data 124 may be writtento database 122 in response to determining a dispositioned outcome 262as described in greater detail below.

In various embodiments, database 122 may be configured to store andmaintain rules data 126 relating to business rules used by BRE 120 inprompting questions and corresponding answer arrays. Rules data 126 maycomprise data such as questions, answer arrays, dispositioned outcomes,intent correlation arrays, and other data defining a decision treestructure. Database 122 may store the rules data 126 using any suitabletechnique described herein or known in the art. Rules data 126 may be inoperative and/or electronic communication with DSS 112, AI disputepreprocessor 116, dispute management system 118, IVR module 114, and/orBRE 120.

In various embodiments, database 122 may be configured to store andmaintain intent data 130. For example, a plurality of intent elementsderived from a parsed natural language problem statement and/or othersuch similar data. Intent data 130 may be stored in database 122 usingany suitable technique described herein or known in the art. Intent data130 may be in operative and/or electronic communication with DSS 112, AIdispute preprocessor 116, dispute management system 118, IVR module 114,and/or BRE 120 and may be associated with customer data 124. In variousembodiments, intent data 130 may be written to database 122 in responseto parsing a natural language problem statement.

In various embodiments, and with additional reference to FIGS. 2A and2B, customer 104 may express an intent to dispute a transaction (step202) through VA device 106 or telephone system 108 which, respectively,may be captured by the voice recognition function VA device 106 or IVRmodule 114 as a dispute initiation request 206. In this regard, VAdevice 106 or telephone system 108 and IVR module 114 may define a voiceinput channel of system 100. VA device 106 or IVR module 114 may beconfigured to invoke an issuer application or skill (step 204) togenerate the dispute initiation request 206 in response to the intent todispute a transaction. For example, the dispute initiation request 206may be generated in response to customer 104 speaking “I wish to disputea transaction” or selecting a dispute option from an options menu.

The DSS may determine a user authentication state in response toreceiving dispute initiation request 206 from the VA device 106 or theIVR module 114. Determining the user authentication state may includethe DSS 112 invoking a customer authentication process (step 208). DSS112 may be configured to prompt the VA device 106 or the IVR module 114for an authentication data input which, in turn, may present anauthentication question to customer 104 (step 210). The DSS may receiveauthentication data 214 and may be configured to compare theauthentication data 214 with customer data 124 to determine theauthentication state (step 216). The customer may be authenticated wherethe authentication data 214 matches customer data 124. DSS 112 maytransmit a valid authentication message 220 to the AI disputepreprocessor 116. In various embodiments, the customer may failauthentication where the authentication data 214 does not match customerdata 124. DSS 112 may transmit a failed authentication message 218 tothe VA device 106 or IVR module 114. In various embodiments, VA device106 or IVR module 114 may convey the failed authentication message 218to customer 104 and may close the issuer application or skill, closeconnections with network 110, and/or otherwise exit the dispute process(step 222).

In various embodiments, in response to the valid authentication message220, the AI dispute preprocessor 116 may generate a question prompt toidentify a transaction and a dispute reason related to the transactionand may transmit the prompt as a request for natural language input 226(step 224). VA device 106 or IVR module 114 may present the request fornatural language input 226 to the customer 104. In various embodiments,customer 104 may generate a natural language problem statement 232 (step230) which may be passed to DSS 112 and AI dispute preprocessor 116 viaVA device 106 or IVR module 114 (step 234). Customer 104 may generate anatural langue problem statement by speaking, in natural voice, a briefdefinition of the dispute such as, for example, “I cancelled my cablesubscription on October 10 but I was still billed.” In this regard, thenatural language problem statement may be relatively arbitrary withrespect to the phraseology for any customer but may contain a userintent with respect to the dispute. The DSS 112 may perform an initialparsing of the natural language problem statement 232 and may transmitthe parsed problem statement for analysis via dispute question andanswer sets (step 236). In various embodiments, the AI disputepreprocessor 116 may determine a user intent in response to the naturallanguage problem statement 232. In various embodiments, the AI disputepreprocessor 116 may parse the natural language problem statement and/ordetermine the user intent via natural language processing algorithmand/or one developed by a machine learning technique such as, forexample, one of a supervised deep learning technique or an unsuperviseddeep learning technique applied to the natural language problemstatement 232.

Determining the user intent may comprise AI dispute preprocessor 116parsing the natural language problem statement 232 into a plurality ofintent elements which may be stored by database 122 as intent data 130defining the user intent (step 238). For example, in response to anatural language problem statement such as “I cancelled my cablesubscription on October 10 but I was still billed,” AI disputepreprocessor 116 may define an array of intent elements for “cancelled”,“subscription”, “cable”, and/or “October 10”. The intent elements may beselected as a function of the business rules or an intent correlationarray comprising phraseology correlated with a particularized intent. Invarious embodiments, AI dispute preprocessor 116 may invoke a disputequestion and answer (Q&A) process (step 240) which may start BRE 120 ofdispute management system 118 (step 242). In various embodiments, AIdispute preprocessor 116 may invoke the dispute Q&A process byrequesting a first question and corresponding first answer array fromthe BRE 120.

In various embodiments, each question and answer set may comprise asingle question and a corresponding array of answers (i.e. acorresponding set of answer choices), wherein each question and answerarray are predefined in accordance with a decision tree structure (e.g.,a set of business rules) which may govern a related dispute Q&A processflow. As will be appreciated, the decision tree comprises branchescomprising multiple levels defined by a plurality of questions with eachof the plurality of questions having a corresponding answer array. Eachsubsequent level is defined by links between answers of the answerarrays from the lower level to one of the question and correspondinganswer array of the higher level or a dispositioned outcome 262. In thisregard, the dispositioned outcome 262 defines the terminus of thebranching path of links followed based on answers selected fromcorresponding answer arrays and may represent a solution to the naturallanguage problem statement which may vary as a function of the businessrules set. The set of business rules may be stored in database 122 asrules data 126. As will be appreciated, an answer array may comprise asingle objective response element such as, for example, a calendar date.For example, the system may present a question comprising a request fora transaction date and a customer may input the calendar date as theobjective response element.

In various embodiments, the BRE 120 may pass a first question andcorresponding first answer array to the AI dispute preprocessor (step244). The AI dispute preprocessor 116 may parse the first question andcorresponding first answer array to generate a first parsed answer array(step 246). In various embodiments, the AI dispute preprocessor 116 maycompare the plurality of intent elements stored as intent data 130 withthe first parsed answer array (step 248). Based on a comparison functionof the first parsed answer array and the plurality of intent elements,the AI dispute preprocessor 116 may determine an answer availability(step 250). For example, AI dispute preprocessor may determine anavailable answer where there is correlation between the plurality ofintent elements and an answer choice of the first parsed answer arrayexceeding a correlation threshold. When the AI dispute preprocessor 116determines an answer is available, the AI dispute preprocessor 116 mayselect a first answer from the first answer array and pass the firstanswer to the BRE 120 (step 252). The system may determine thecorrelation and make the answer selection based on comparison algorithmsdeveloped by a machine learning technique such as, for example, one of asupervised deep learning technique or an unsupervised deep learningtechnique or a reinforcement technique. When the AI dispute preprocessor116 determines an answer is not available, the AI dispute preprocessor116 may pass the first question and corresponding first answer array tothe DSS 112 for presentation to the customer 104. In this regard, thecustomer 104 may select the first answer which may be received by theDSS 112 and passed to the AI dispute preprocessor 116 (step 258).

In either case and in response to receiving the first answer, the BRE120 may process the first answer (step 254) and determine (based on thebusiness rules set) whether a dispositioned outcome 262 is reached (step256). In other words, the BRE may determine if the first answer islinked to the dispositioned outcome 262 or branches to another question(e.g., a second question). When the answer branches to another question,the BRE 120 returns to prompt the next question (step 244). In thisregard, in response to the first answer, the BRE may pass a secondquestion and corresponding second answer array to the AI disputepreprocessor 116. The AI dispute preprocessor 116 may parse the secondquestion and corresponding second answer array and generate a secondparsed answer array (step 246). In various embodiments, the AI disputepreprocessor 116 may compare the plurality of intent elements stored asintent data 130 with the second parsed answer array (step 248) and,based on a function of the second parsed answer array and the pluralityof intent elements, may determine the answer availability (step 250).

When the AI dispute preprocessor 116 determines the answer is available,the AI dispute preprocessor 116 may select a second answer from thesecond answer array and pass the second answer to the BRE 120 (step252). When the AI dispute preprocessor 116 determines the answer is notavailable, the AI dispute preprocessor 116 may pass the second questionand corresponding second answer array to the DSS 112 for presentation tothe customer 104 and, in this regard, the customer 104 may select thesecond answer which may be received by the DSS 112 and passed to the AIdispute preprocessor 116 (step 258). As above and with regards to step254 and step 256 the BRE 120 may process the second answer and determinebased on the business rules set whether the dispositioned outcome 262 isreached. In this regard, the system may iterate through any number ofbranching question and corresponding answer arrays defined by thebusiness rules set (e.g., a third question and corresponding thirdanswer array, a fourth question and corresponding fourth answer array .. . an Nth question and corresponding Nth answer array) until the BRE120 determines the dispositioned outcome 262 is reached. In variousembodiments, when the dispositioned outcome 262 is reached the BRE 120may then provide the dispositioned outcome 262 for presentation to thecustomer 104 and store the dispositioned outcome 262 as customer data124 (step 260) and the process depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B for iscomplete for the given dispute initiation request 206.

The detailed description of various embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show variousembodiments by way of illustration. While these various embodiments aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the disclosure, it should be understood that other embodimentsmay be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments,” “oneembodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in alternative embodiments.

As used herein, “satisfy,” “meet,” “match,” “associated with” or similarphrases may include an identical match, a partial match, meeting certaincriteria, matching a subset of data, a correlation, satisfying certaincriteria, a correspondence, an association, an algorithmic relationshipand/or the like. Similarly, as used herein, “authenticate” or similarterms may include an exact authentication, a partial authentication,authenticating a subset of data, a correspondence, satisfying certaincriteria, an association, an algorithmic relationship and/or the like.

Terms and phrases similar to “associate” and/or “associating” mayinclude tagging, flagging, correlating, using a look-up table or anyother method or system for indicating or creating a relationship betweenelements, such as, for example, (i) a transaction account and (ii) anitem (e.g., offer, reward, discount) and/or digital channel. Moreover,the associating may occur at any point, in response to any suitableaction, event, or period of time. The associating may occur atpre-determined intervals, periodic, randomly, once, more than once, orin response to a suitable request or action. Any of the information maybe distributed and/or accessed via a software enabled link, wherein thelink may be sent via an email, text, post, social network input and/orany other method known in the art.

The system or any components may integrate with system integrationtechnology such as, for example, the ALEXA system developed by AMAZON.Alexa is a cloud-based voice service that can help you with tasks,entertainment, general information and more. All Amazon Alexa devices,such as the Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV, haveaccess to the Alexa Voice Service. The system may receive voice commandsvia its voice activation technology, and activate other functions,control smart devices and/or gather information. For example, music,emails, texts, calling, questions answered, home improvementinformation, smart home communication/activation, games, shopping,making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playingaudiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other real timeinformation, such as news. The system may allow the user to accessinformation about eligible accounts linked to an online account acrossall Alexa-enabled devices.

The customer may be identified as a customer of interest to a merchantbased on the customer's transaction history at the merchant, types oftransactions, type of transaction account, frequency of transactions,number of transactions, lack of transactions, timing of transactions,transaction history at other merchants, demographic information,personal information (e.g., gender, race, religion), social media or anyother online information, potential for transacting with the merchantand/or any other factors.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, account affiliate,cardmember or the like shall include any person, entity, business,government organization, business, software, hardware, machineassociated with a transaction account, who buys merchant offeringsoffered by one or more merchants using the account and/or who is legallydesignated for performing transactions on the account, regardless ofwhether a physical card is associated with the account. For example, thecardmember may include a transaction account owner, a transactionaccount user, an account affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiaryaccount user, a beneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account,and/or any other person or entity affiliated or associated with atransaction account.

As used herein, big data may refer to partially or fully structured,semi-structured, or unstructured data sets including millions of rowsand hundreds of thousands of columns. A big data set may be compiled,for example, from a history of purchase transactions over time, from webregistrations, from social media, from records of charge (ROC), fromsummaries of charges (SOC), from internal data, or from other suitablesources. Big data sets may be compiled without descriptive metadata suchas column types, counts, percentiles, or other interpretive-aid datapoints.

A record of charge (or “ROC”) may comprise any transaction ortransaction data. The ROC may be a unique identifier associated with atransaction. Record of Charge (ROC) data includes important informationand enhanced data. For example, a ROC may contain details such aslocation, merchant name or identifier, transaction amount, transactiondate, account number, account security pin or code, account expiry date,and the like for the transaction. Such enhanced data increases theaccuracy of matching the transaction data to the receipt data. Suchenhanced ROC data is NOT equivalent to transaction entries from abanking statement or transaction account statement, which is verylimited to basic data about a transaction. Furthermore, a ROC isprovided by a different source, namely the ROC is provided by themerchant to the transaction processor. In that regard, the ROC is aunique identifier associated with a particular transaction. A ROC isoften associated with a Summary of Charges (SOC). The ROCs and SOCsinclude information provided by the merchant to the transactionprocessor, and the ROCs and SOCs are used in the settlement process withthe merchant. A transaction may, in various embodiments, be performed bya one or more members using a transaction account, such as a transactionaccount associated with a gift card, a debit card, a credit card, andthe like.

Distributed computing cluster may be, for example, a Hadoop® clusterconfigured to process and store big data sets with some of nodescomprising a distributed storage system and some of nodes comprising adistributed processing system. In that regard, distributed computingcluster may be configured to support a Hadoop® distributed file system(HDFS) as specified by the Apache Software Foundation athttp://hadoop.apache.org/docs/. For more information on big datamanagement systems, see U.S. Ser. No. 14/944,902 titled INTEGRATED BIGDATA INTERFACE FOR MULTIPLE STORAGE TYPES and filed on Nov. 18, 2015;U.S. Ser. No. 14/944,979 titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR READING ANDWRITING TO BIG DATA STORAGE FORMATS and filed on Nov. 18, 2015; U.S.Ser. No. 14/945,032 titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING, TRACKING, ANDMAINTAINING BIG DATA USE CASES and filed on Nov. 18, 2015; U.S. Ser. No.14/944,849 titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY CAPTURING ANDRECORDING LINEAGE DATA FOR BIG DATA RECORDS and filed on Nov. 18, 2015;U.S. Ser. No. 14/944,898 titled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRACKINGSENSITIVE DATA IN A BIG DATA ENVIRONMENT and filed on Nov. 18, 2015; andU.S. Ser. No. 14/944,961 titled SYSTEM AND METHOD TRANSFORMING SOURCEDATA INTO OUTPUT DATA IN BIG DATA ENVIRONMENTS and filed on Nov. 18,2015, the contents of each of which are herein incorporated by referencein their entirety.

Any communication, transmission and/or channel discussed herein mayinclude any system or method for delivering content (e.g. data,information, metadata, etc.), and/or the content itself. The content maybe presented in any form or medium, and in various embodiments, thecontent may be delivered electronically and/or capable of beingpresented electronically. For example, a channel may comprise a websiteor device (e.g., Facebook, YOUTUBE®, APPLE®TV®, PANDORA®, XBOX®, SONY®PLAYSTATION®), a uniform resource locator (“URL”), a document (e.g., aMICROSOFT® Word® document, a MICROSOFT® Excel® document, an ADOBE® .pdfdocument, etc.), an “ebook,” an “emagazine,” an application ormicroapplication (as described herein), an SMS or other type of textmessage, an email, facebook, twitter, MMS and/or other type ofcommunication technology. In various embodiments, a channel may behosted or provided by a data partner. In various embodiments, thedistribution channel may comprise at least one of a merchant website, asocial media website, affiliate or partner websites, an external vendor,a mobile device communication, social media network and/or locationbased service. Distribution channels may include at least one of amerchant website, a social media site, affiliate or partner websites, anexternal vendor, and a mobile device communication. Examples of socialmedia sites include FACEBOOK®, FOURSQUARE®, TWITTER®, MYSPACE®,LINKEDIN®, and the like. Examples of affiliate or partner websitesinclude AMERICAN EXPRESS®, GROUPON®, LIVINGSOCIAL®, and the like.Moreover, examples of mobile device communications include texting,email, and mobile applications for smartphones.

A “consumer profile” or “consumer profile data” may comprise anyinformation or data about a consumer that describes an attributeassociated with the consumer (e.g., a preference, an interest,demographic information, personally identifying information, and thelike).

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., WINDOWS®, OS2, UNIX®, LINUX®, SOLARIS®, MacOS, etc.) aswell as various conventional support software and drivers typicallyassociated with computers.

The present system or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may beimplemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems.However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were often referredto in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may bemachine operations or any of the operations may be conducted or enhancedby Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning. Useful machines forperforming the various embodiments include general purpose digitalcomputers or similar devices.

In fact, in various embodiments, the embodiments are directed toward oneor more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. The computer system includes one or more processors,such as processor. The processor is connected to a communicationinfrastructure (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, or network).Various software embodiments are described in terms of this exemplarycomputer system. After reading this description, it will become apparentto a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement variousembodiments using other computer systems and/or architectures. Computersystem can include a display interface that forwards graphics, text, andother data from the communication infrastructure (or from a frame buffernot shown) for display on a display unit.

Computer system also includes a main memory, such as for example randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory orin-memory (non-spinning) hard drives. The secondary memory may include,for example, a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive,representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical diskdrive, etc. The removable storage drive reads from and/or writes to aremovable storage unit in a well-known manner. Removable storage unitrepresents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which isread by and written to by removable storage drive. As will beappreciated, the removable storage unit includes a computer usablestorage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In various embodiments, secondary memory may include other similardevices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system. Such devices may include, for example, aremovable storage unit and an interface. Examples of such may include aprogram cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in videogame devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) andassociated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces,which allow software and data to be transferred from the removablestorage unit to computer system.

Computer system may also include a communications interface.Communications interface allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system and external devices. Examples of communicationsinterface may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernetcard), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory CardInternational Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and datatransferred via communications interface are in the form of signalswhich may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signalscapable of being received by communications interface. These signals areprovided to communications interface via a communications path (e.g.,channel). This channel carries signals and may be implemented usingwire, cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radiofrequency (RF) link, wireless and other communications channels.

The terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” and“computer readable medium” are used to generally refer to media such asremovable storage drive and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive.These computer program products provide software to computer system.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory and/or secondary memory. Computer programs mayalso be received via communications interface. Such computer programs,when executed, enable the computer system to perform the features asdiscussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed,enable the processor to perform the features of various embodiments.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer programproduct and loaded into computer system using removable storage drive,hard disk drive or communications interface. The control logic(software), when executed by the processor, causes the processor toperform the functions of various embodiments as described herein. Invarious embodiments, hardware components such as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware statemachine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparentto persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In various embodiments, the server may include application servers (e.g.WEB SPHERE, WEB LOGIC, JBOSS, EDB® Postgres Plus Advanced Server®(PPAS), etc.). In various embodiments, the server may include webservers (e.g. APACHE, IIS, GWS, SUN JAVA® SYSTEM WEB SERVER, JAVAVirtual Machine running on LINUX or WINDOWS).

A web client includes any device (e.g., personal computer) whichcommunicates via any network, for example such as those discussedherein. Such browser applications comprise Internet browsing softwareinstalled within a computing unit or a system to conduct onlinetransactions and/or communications. These computing units or systems maytake the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types ofcomputing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks,tablets, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as IPADS®, IMACS®, and MACBOOKS®,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over anetwork. A web-client may run MICROSOFT® INTERNET EXPLORER®, MOZILLA®FIREFOX®, GOOGLE® CHROME®, APPLE® Safari, or any other of the myriadsoftware packages available for browsing the internet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a web client may or may not be indirect contact with an application server. For example, a web client mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In variousembodiments, access is through a network or the Internet through acommercially-available web-browser software package.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web client includes anoperating system (e.g., WINDOWS®/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX®, LINUX®,SOLARIS®, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A web client mayinclude any suitable personal computer, network computer, workstation,personal digital assistant, cellular phone, smart phone, minicomputer,mainframe or the like. A web client can be in a home or businessenvironment with access to a network. In various embodiments, access isthrough a network or the Internet through a commercially availableweb-browser software package. A web client may implement securityprotocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport LayerSecurity (TLS). A web client may implement several application layerprotocols including http, https, ftp, and sftp.

In various embodiments, components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a WINDOWS® mobile operating system, an ANDROID®Operating System, APPLE® IOS®, a BLACKBERRY® operating system and thelike. The micro-app may be configured to leverage the resources of thelarger operating system and associated hardware via a set ofpredetermined rules which govern the operations of various operatingsystems and hardware resources. For example, where a micro-app desiresto communicate with a device or network other than the mobile device ormobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage the communicationprotocol of the operating system and associated device hardware underthe predetermined rules of the mobile operating system. Moreover, wherethe micro-app desires an input from a user, the micro-app may beconfigured to request a response from the operating system whichmonitors various hardware components and then communicates a detectedinput from the hardware to the micro-app.

As used herein an “identifier” may be any suitable identifier thatuniquely identifies an item. For example, the identifier may be aglobally unique identifier (“GUID”). The GUID may be an identifiercreated and/or implemented under the universally unique identifierstandard. Moreover, the GUID may be stored as 128-bit value that can bedisplayed as 32 hexadecimal digits. The identifier may also include amajor number, and a minor number. The major number and minor number mayeach be 16 bit integers.

As used herein, the term “network” includes any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digitalassistant (e.g., IPHONE®, BLACKBERRY®), cellular phone, kiosk, etc.),online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem is frequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX,APPLE®talk, IP-6, NetBIOS®, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec,SSH), or any number of existing or future protocols. If the network isin the nature of a public network, such as the Internet, it may beadvantageous to presume the network to be insecure and open toeavesdroppers. Specific information related to the protocols, standards,and application software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, Dilip Naik, Internet Standards andProtocols (1998); JAVA® 2 Complete, various authors, (Sybex 1999);Deborah Ray and Eric Ray, Mastering HTML 4.0 (1997); and Loshin, TCP/IPClearly Explained (1997) and David Gourley and Brian Totty, HTTP, TheDefinitive Guide (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

The various system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network via data links whichincludes, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider(ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish Networks®, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., Gilbert Held, Understanding Data Communications (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network may beimplemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, the system contemplates the use,sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (lastvisited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

As used herein, “issue a debit,” “debit” or “debiting” refers to eithercausing the debiting of a stored value or prepaid card-type financialaccount, or causing the charging of a credit or charge card-typefinancial account, as applicable.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, entertainment, data, offer, discount, rebate,points, virtual currency, content, access, rental, lease, contribution,account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points, coupons,credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something of minimal orno value, monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like. Moreover,the “transactions” or “purchases” discussed herein may be associatedwith an item. Furthermore, a “reward” may be an item.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Association of certain data may be accomplished through any desired dataassociation technique such as those known or practiced in the art. Forexample, the association may be accomplished either manually orautomatically. Automatic association techniques may include, forexample, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using akey field in the tables to speed searches, sequential searches throughall the tables and files, sorting records in the file according to aknown order to simplify lookup, and/or the like. The association stepmay be accomplished by a database merge function, for example, using a“key field” in pre-selected databases or data sectors. Various databasetuning steps are contemplated to optimize database performance. Forexample, frequently used files such as indexes may be placed on separatefile systems to reduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In various embodiments, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored in association with the system or external tobut affiliated with system. The BLOB method may store data sets asungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary via a fixedmemory offset using either fixed storage allocation, circular queuetechniques, or best practices with respect to memory management (e.g.,paged memory, least recently used, etc.). By using BLOB methods, theability to store various data sets that have different formatsfacilitates the storage of data, in the database or associated with thesystem, by multiple and unrelated owners of the data sets. For example,a first data set which may be stored may be provided by a first party, asecond data set which may be stored may be provided by an unrelatedsecond party, and yet a third data set which may be stored, may beprovided by an third party unrelated to the first and second party. Eachof these three exemplary data sets may contain different informationthat is stored using different data storage formats and/or techniques.Further, each data set may contain subsets of data that also may bedistinct from other subsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, the data set (e.g., BLOB) may beannotated in a standard manner when provided for manipulating the datain the database or system. The annotation may comprise a short header,trailer, or other appropriate indicator related to each data set that isconfigured to convey information useful in managing the various datasets. For example, the annotation may be called a “condition header,”“header,” “trailer,” or “status,” herein, and may comprise an indicationof the status of the data set or may include an identifier correlated toa specific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by astandalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, oraugment the data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, inone embodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the user at thestandalone device, the appropriate option for the action to be taken.The system may contemplate a data storage arrangement wherein the headeror trailer, or header or trailer history, of the data is stored on thesystem, device or transaction instrument in relation to the appropriatedata.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, GPG (GnuPG), HPEFormat-Preserving Encryption (FPE), Voltage, and symmetric andasymmetric cryptosystems. The systems and methods may also incorporateSHA series cryptographic methods as well as ECC (Elliptic CurveCryptography) and other Quantum Readable Cryptography Algorithms underdevelopment.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured toprotect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources from usersof other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limit orrestrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through a web server. Firewall may reside invarying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewall may beintegrated within a web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the MICROSOFT® INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES® (IIS),MICROSOFT® Transaction Server (MTS), and MICROSOFT® SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the MICROSOFT® operating system, MICROSOFT® NT webserver software, a MICROSOFT® SQL Server database system, and aMICROSOFT® Commerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access orMICROSOFT® SQL Server, ORACLE®, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc.,may be used to provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant databasemanagement system. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used inconjunction with a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and thePerl, PHP, Ruby, and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, JAVA® applets, JAVASCRIPT,active server pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI),extensible markup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets(CSS), AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT And XML), helper applications,plug-ins, and the like. A server may include a web service that receivesa request from a web server, the request including a URL and an IPaddress (123.56.789.234). The web server retrieves the appropriate webpages and sends the data or applications for the web pages to the IPaddress. Web services are applications that are capable of interactingwith other applications over a communications means, such as theinternet. Web services are typically based on standards or protocolssuch as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDL and UDDI. Web services methods are wellknown in the art, and are covered in many standard texts. See, e.g.,Alex Nghiem, IT Web Services: A Roadmap for the Enterprise (2003),hereby incorporated by reference. For example, representational statetransfer (REST), or RESTful, web services may provide one way ofenabling interoperability between applications.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WEBSPHERE MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM®, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, JAVA®, JAVASCRIPT, JAVASCRIPTObject Notation (JSON), VBScript, Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL,MICROSOFT® Active Server Pages, assembly, PERL, PHP, awk, Python, VisualBasic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, any UNIX shell script, andextensible markup language (XML) with the various algorithms beingimplemented with any combination of data structures, objects, processes,routines or other programming elements. Further, it should be noted thatthe system may employ any number of conventional techniques for datatransmission, signaling, data processing, network control, and the like.Still further, the system could be used to detect or prevent securityissues with a client-side scripting language, such as JAVASCRIPT,VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction of cryptography andnetwork security, see any of the following references: (1) “AppliedCryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,” by BruceSchneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition, 1995); (2)“JAVA® Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published by O'Reilly &Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security: Principles &Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall; all of whichare hereby incorporated by reference.

In various embodiments, the software elements of the system may also beimplemented using Node.js®. Node.js® may implement several modules tohandle various core functionalities. For example, a package managementmodule, such as Npm®, may be implemented as an open source library toaid in organizing the installation and management of third-partyNode.js® programs. Node.js® may also implement a process manager, suchas, for example, Parallel Multithreaded Machine (“PM2”); a resource andperformance monitoring tool, such as, for example, Node ApplicationMetrics (“appmetrics”); a library module for building user interfaces,such as for example ReachJS®; and/or any other suitable and/or desiredmodule.

As used herein, the term “end user,” “consumer,” “customer,”“cardmember,” “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, governmentorganization, business, machine, hardware, and/or software. A bank maybe part of the system, but the bank may represent other types of cardissuing institutions, such as credit card companies, card sponsoringcompanies, or third party issuers under contract with financialinstitutions. It is further noted that other participants may beinvolved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution, but these participants are not shown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet®, Veriphone®, Discover Card®, PayPal®, ApplePay®,GooglePay®, private networks (e.g., department store networks), and/orany other payment networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, a processing apparatus executing upgraded software, a standalone system, a distributed system, a method, a data processing system,a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, any portion of the system or a module may take the form ofa processing apparatus executing code, an internet based embodiment, anentirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of theinternet, software and hardware. Furthermore, the system may take theform of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program code means embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized,including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storagedevices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

Referring now to FIGS. 2A and 2B the process flows and screenshotsdepicted are merely embodiments and are not intended to limit the scopeof the disclosure. For example, the steps recited in any of the methodor process descriptions may be executed in any order and are not limitedto the order presented. It will be appreciated that the followingdescription makes appropriate references not only to the steps and userinterface elements depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B, but also to the varioussystem components as described above with reference to FIG. 1.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser WINDOWS®, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc.Practitioners will appreciate that the illustrated steps describedherein may comprise in any number of configurations including the use ofWINDOWS®, webpages, web forms, popup WINDOWS®, prompts and the like. Itshould be further appreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated anddescribed may be combined into single webpages and/or WINDOWS® but havebeen expanded for the sake of simplicity. In other cases, stepsillustrated and described as single process steps may be separated intomultiple webpages and/or WINDOWS® but have been combined for simplicity.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” and“non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” should be construed toexclude only those types of transitory computer-readable media whichwere found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope of patentablesubject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described various embodiments that are known to those of ordinaryskill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and areintended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is notnecessary for a device or method to address each and every problemsought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to be encompassedby the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or methodstep in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether the element, component, or method step isexplicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is intended to invoke35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the element is expressly recited using thephrase “means for.” As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,”or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusiveinclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus thatcomprises a list of elements does not include only those elements butmay include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to suchprocess, method, article, or apparatus.

In yet another embodiment, the transponder, transponder-reader, and/ortransponder-reader system are configured with a biometric securitysystem that may be used for providing biometrics as a secondary form ofidentification. The biometric security system may include a transponderand a reader communicating with the system. The biometric securitysystem also may include a biometric sensor that detects biometricsamples and a device for verifying biometric samples. The biometricsecurity system may be configured with one or more biometric scanners,processors and/or systems. A biometric system may include one or moretechnologies, or any portion thereof, such as, for example, recognitionof a biometric. As used herein, a biometric may include a user's voice,fingerprint, facial, ear, signature, vascular patterns, DNA sampling,hand geometry, sound, olfactory, keystroke/typing, iris, retinal or anyother biometric relating to recognition based upon any body part,function, system, attribute and/or other characteristic, or any portionthereof.

Phrases and terms similar to a “party” may include any individual,consumer, customer, group, business, organization, government entity,transaction account issuer or processor (e.g., credit, charge, etc),merchant, consortium of merchants, account holder, charitableorganization, software, hardware, and/or any other type of entity. Theterms “user,” “consumer,” “purchaser,” and/or the plural form of theseterms are used interchangeably throughout herein to refer to thosepersons or entities that are alleged to be authorized to use atransaction account.

Phrases and terms similar to “account,” “account number,” “account code”or “consumer account” as used herein, may include any device, code(e.g., one or more of an authorization/access code, personalidentification number (“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code,and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smartchip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system. The account number mayoptionally be located on or associated with a rewards account, chargeaccount, credit account, debit account, prepaid account, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accounts,devices, and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RFcommunication with the transponder (which may include a fob), orcommunications between an initiator and a target enabled by near fieldcommunications (NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a keyring, tag, card, cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable ofbeing presented for interrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unitor device discussed herein may include a “pervasive computing device,”which may include a traditionally non-computerized device that isembedded with a computing unit. Examples may include watches, Internetenabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embedded with RF readers,wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a deviceor financial transaction instrument may have electronic andcommunications functionality enabled, for example, by: a network ofelectronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto orwithin the transaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smartcard”); a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000.” The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

In various embodiments, an account number may identify a consumer. Inaddition, in various embodiments, a consumer may be identified by avariety of identifiers, including, for example, an email address, atelephone number, a cookie id, a radio frequency identifier (RFID), abiometric, and the like.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

Phrases and terms similar to “business” or “merchant” may be usedinterchangeably with each other and shall mean any person, entity,distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider, brokerand/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods or services.For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retail store, a travelagency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or the like.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “transaction account,” “financialtransaction instrument,” “transaction instrument” and/or the plural formof these terms may be used interchangeably throughout to refer to afinancial instrument. Phrases and terms similar to “transaction account”may include any account that may be used to facilitate a financialtransaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “merchant,” “supplier” or “seller” mayinclude any entity that receives payment or other consideration. Forexample, a supplier may request payment for goods sold to a buyer whoholds an account with a transaction account issuer.

Phrases and terms similar to a “buyer” may include any entity thatreceives goods or services in exchange for consideration (e.g. financialpayment). For example, a buyer may purchase, lease, rent, barter orotherwise obtain goods from a supplier and pay the supplier using atransaction account.

Phrases and terms similar to “internal data” may include any data acredit issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to a particular consumer.Internal data may be gathered before, during, or after a relationshipbetween the credit issuer and the transaction account holder (e.g., theconsumer or buyer). Such data may include consumer demographic data.Consumer demographic data includes any data pertaining to a consumer.Consumer demographic data may include consumer name, address, telephonenumber, email address, employer and social security number. Consumertransactional data is any data pertaining to the particular transactionsin which a consumer engages during any given time period. Consumertransactional data may include, for example, transaction amount,transaction time, transaction vendor/merchant, and transactionvendor/merchant location. Transaction vendor/merchant location maycontain a high degree of specificity to a vendor/merchant. For example,transaction vendor/merchant location may include a particular gasolinefiling station in a particular postal code located at a particular crosssection or address. Also, for example, transaction vendor/merchantlocation may include a particular web address, such as a UniformResource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an Internet Protocol(“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transaction vendor/merchant, andtransaction vendor/merchant location may be associated with a particularconsumer and further associated with sets of consumers. Consumer paymentdata includes any data pertaining to a consumer's history of paying debtobligations. Consumer payment data may include consumer payment dates,payment amounts, balance amount, and credit limit. Internal data mayfurther comprise records of consumer service calls, complaints, requestsfor credit line increases, questions, and comments. A record of aconsumer service call includes, for example, date of call, reason forcall, and any transcript or summary of the actual call.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may include a company (e.g., athird party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions. Apayment processor may include an issuer, acquirer, authorizer and/or anyother system or entity involved in the transaction process. Paymentprocessors may be broken down into two types: front-end and back-end.Front-end payment processors have connections to various transactionaccounts and supply authorization and settlement services to themerchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processors acceptsettlements from front-end payment processors and, via The FederalReserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchant bank. Inan operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processorwill both check the details received by forwarding the details to therespective account's issuing bank or card association for verification,and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against thetransaction. Additional parameters, including the account's country ofissue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.

Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

Phrases similar to “vendor software” or “vendor” may include software,hardware and/or a solution provided from an external vendor (e.g., notpart of the merchant) to provide value in the payment process (e.g.,risk assessment).

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a computerbased system, a natural language problem statement from a voice inputchannel; determining, by the computer based system, a user intent inresponse to the natural language problem statement, wherein thedetermining the user intent further comprises: parsing, by the computerbased system, the natural language problem statement into a plurality ofintent elements that are correlated with the determined user intent; andstoring, by the computer based system, the plurality of intent elementsas intent data; executing a question and answer process having multiplelevels defined by a plurality of questions and corresponding answerarrays; at individual ones of the multiple levels of the question andanswer process, comparing the plurality of intent elements that arecorrelated with the determined user intent with an answer array for acurrent level and a question for the current level of the question andanswer process, wherein, at the individual ones of the multiple levelsof the question and answer process, an answer is selected, by thecomputer based system, from the answer array before progressing to anext level of the question and answer process based on a determinationof one of the plurality of intent elements corresponding to the selectedanswer, wherein the question and the answer array for the current levelare presented over the voice input channel to a user, by the computerbased system, when none of the plurality of intent elements that arecorrelated with the determined user intent are determined, by thecomputer based system, to correspond to available answers in the answerarray for the current level, and wherein the user is prompted, by thecomputer based system, to select one of the available answers in theanswer array before moving to the next level of the question and answerprocess when none of the plurality of intent elements that arecorrelated with the determined user intent are determined, by thecomputer based system, to correspond to the available answers in theanswer array for the current level; completing, by the computer basedsystem, the question and answer process until a dispositioned outcome isdetermined; and returning, by the computer based system, thedispositioned outcome and storing, by the computer based system, thedispositioned outcome as a customer data.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising determining, by the computer based system, a userauthentication state in response to a dispute initiation request,wherein the determining the user authentication state comprises:invoking, by the computer based system, a user authentication processand prompting the voice input channel for an authentication data input;receiving, by the computer based system, an authentication data andcomparing, by the computer based system, the authentication data to thecustomer data; and returning, by the computer based system and inresponse to the user authentication state, a failed authenticationmessage or a valid authentication message.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the computer based system transmits a request for naturallanguage input in response to a valid authentication message.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: requesting, by the computer basedsystem, a first question and corresponding first answer array at a firstlevel of the question and answer process; parsing, by the computer basedsystem, the first question and corresponding first answer array andgenerating a first parsed answer array; and determining, by the computerbased system, an answer availability in response to the first parsedanswer array and a comparison function between the first parsed answerarray and the plurality of intent elements.
 5. The method of claim 4,further comprising: either selecting, by the computer based system, afirst answer in response to the answer availability or passing, by thecomputer based system, the first question and corresponding first answerarray to the voice input channel and receiving the first answer from thevoice input channel; and receiving, by the computer based system, asecond question and corresponding second answer array at a second levelof the question and answer process in response to the first answer. 6.The method of claim 5, further comprising: parsing, by the computerbased system, the second question and corresponding second answer arrayand generating a second parsed answer array; determining, by thecomputer based system, the answer availability in response to the secondparsed answer array and the comparison function between the secondparsed answer array and the plurality of intent elements; selecting, bythe computer based system, a second answer in response to the answeravailability; or passing, by the computer based system, the secondquestion and corresponding second answer array to the voice inputchannel and receiving the second answer from the voice input channel;and receiving, by the computer based system, a third question andcorresponding third answer array at a third level of the question andanswer process in response to the second answer.
 7. A system comprising:a processor; and a tangible, non-transitory memory configured tocommunicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memoryhaving instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by theprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:receiving a natural language problem statement from a voice inputchannel; determining a user intent in response to the natural languageproblem statement, wherein the determining the user intent furthercomprises: parsing the natural language problem statement into aplurality of intent elements that are correlated with the determineduser intent; and storing the plurality of intent elements as intentdata; executing a question and answer process having multiple levelsdefined by a plurality of questions and corresponding answer arrays; atindividual ones of the multiple levels of the question and answerprocess, comparing the plurality of intent elements that are correlatedwith the determined user intent with an answer array for a current leveland a question for the current level of the question and answer process,wherein, at the individual ones of the multiple levels of the questionand answer process, an answer is selected, by the processor, from theanswer array before progressing to a next level of the question andanswer process based on a determination of one of the plurality ofintent elements corresponding one of the plurality of intent elementscorresponding to the selected answer, wherein the question and theanswer array for the current level are presented over the voice inputchannel to a user, by the processor, when none of the plurality ofintent elements that are correlated with the determined user intent aredetermined, by the processor, to correspond to available answers in theanswer array for the current level, and wherein the user is prompted, bythe processor, to select one of the available answers in the answerarray before moving to the next level of the question and answer processwhen none of the plurality of intent elements that are correlated withthe determined user intent are determined, by the processor, tocorrespond to the available answers in the answer array for the currentlevel; completing the question and answer process until a dispositionedoutcome is determined; and returning the dispositioned outcome andstoring the dispositioned outcome as a customer data.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, further comprising determining a user authentication state inresponse to a dispute initiation request, wherein the determining theuser authentication state comprises: invoking a user authenticationprocess and prompting the voice input channel for an authentication datainput; receiving an authentication data and comparing, by the processor,the authentication data to the customer data; and returning in responseto the user authentication state, a failed authentication message or avalid authentication message.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein theprocessor transmits a request for natural language input in response toa valid authentication message.
 10. The system of claim 7, furthercomprising: requesting a first question and corresponding first answerarray at a first level of the question and answer process; parsing thefirst question and corresponding first answer array and generating afirst parsed answer array; and determining an answer availability inresponse to the first parsed answer array and a comparison functionbetween the first parsed answer array and the plurality of intentelements.
 11. The system of claim 10, further comprising: eitherselecting a first answer in response to the answer availability orpassing the first question and corresponding first answer array to thevoice input channel and receiving the first answer from the voice inputchannel; and receiving a second question and corresponding second answerarray at a second level of the question and answer process in responseto the first answer.
 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:parsing the second question and corresponding second answer array andgenerating a second parsed answer array; determining the answeravailability in response to the second parsed answer array and thecomparison function between the second parsed answer array and theplurality of intent elements; selecting a second answer in response tothe answer availability; or passing the second question andcorresponding second answer array to the voice input channel andreceiving the second answer from the voice input channel; and receivinga third question and corresponding third answer array at a third levelof the question and answer process in response to the second answer. 13.An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by a computer based system, cause the computerbased system to perform operations comprising: receiving a naturallanguage problem statement from a voice input channel; determining auser intent in response to the natural language problem statement,wherein the determining the user intent further comprises: parsing thenatural language problem statement into a plurality of intent elementsthat are correlated with the determined user intent; and storing theplurality of intent elements as intent data; executing a question andanswer process having multiple levels defined by a plurality ofquestions and corresponding answer arrays; at individual ones of themultiple levels of the question and answer process, comparing theplurality of intent elements that are correlated with the determineduser intent with an answer array for a current level and a question forthe current level of the question and answer process, wherein, at theindividual ones of the multiple levels of the question and answerprocess, an answer is selected, by the computer based system, from theanswer array before progressing to a next level of the question andanswer process based on a determination of one of the plurality ofintent elements corresponding to the selected answer, wherein thequestion and the answer array for the current level are presented overthe voice input channel to a user, by the computer based system, whennone of the plurality of intent elements that are correlated with thedetermined user intent are determined, by the computer based system, tocorrespond to available answers in the answer array for the currentlevel, and wherein the user is prompted, by the computer based system,to select one of the available answers in the answer array before movingto the next level of the question and answer process when none of theplurality of intent elements that are correlated with the determineduser intent are determined, by the computer based system, to correspondto the available answers in the answer array for the current level;completing the question and answer process until a dispositioned outcomeis determined; and returning the dispositioned outcome and storing, bythe computer based system, the dispositioned outcome as a customer data.14. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein the operationsfurther comprise determining a user authentication state in response toa dispute initiation request, wherein the determining the userauthentication state comprises: invoking a user authentication processand prompting the voice input channel for an authentication data input;receiving an authentication data and comparing, by the computer basedsystem, the authentication data to the customer data; and returning, inresponse to the user authentication state, a failed authenticationmessage or a valid authentication message.
 15. The article ofmanufacture of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprisetransmitting a request for natural language input in response to a validauthentication message.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim 13,wherein the operations further comprise: requesting a first question andcorresponding first answer array at a first level of the question andanswer process; parsing the first question and corresponding firstanswer array and generating a first parsed answer array; and determiningan answer availability in response to the first parsed answer array anda comparison function between the first parsed answer array and theplurality of intent elements.
 17. The article of manufacture of claim16, wherein the operations further comprise: either selecting a firstanswer in response to the answer availability or passing the firstquestion and corresponding first answer array to the voice input channeland receiving the first answer from the voice input channel; andreceiving a second question and corresponding second answer array in asecond level of the question and answer process in response to the firstanswer.